In the Throes of Change.

The decade of the 1910s was not an especially formative period in American law; it was, however, a period that witnessed significant transitions in perspective, both inside and outside the legal establishment, about the role of the law and the function of the judiciary in American society. During these years the national trends toward greater industrialization and urbanization continued, and a considerable portion of the country's population was experiencing improvement in its standard of living. It was also a time of increasing public anxiety — an understandable reaction to the complexities and dislocations of an expanding industrial economy. Many Americans were troubled by the well-documented abuses of monopolies in industry and transportation and by the increased concentration of corporate wealth. Concerns surfaced about the astounding increase in the flow of immigrants and the often violent upheavals in the relations between management and labor. Responding...